


Starry, starry night

by almostunadulteratedmiracle



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Astronomy, Crowley seems to love astronomy in the series, Gen, POV Outsider, and i love him even more for that, kind of a bittersweet ending for now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-13 20:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19258954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostunadulteratedmiracle/pseuds/almostunadulteratedmiracle
Summary: " I’m sorry. Is there any way I can make it up to you?” she ended up asking.“I don’t know… Crowley, dear, is there?”“Well, Az-… Ezra,” his companion answered, “I sure wouldn’t mind another look at that last nebula...”-------------------------------------------------------------------Crowley might have helped make lots of tiny bits of the Cosmos, and he still admires them from afar. After the Notpocalypse, he and Aziraphale visit loads of observatories. Just to be on the safe side, they are trying to keep a low profile (and their supernatural natures to themselves)... and they are ridiculously bad at it.In other words, Aziraphale is a bit of a bastard, but at least he heals a telescope; Crowley is (figuratively) glued to telescopes; and a young astronomer has a slightly weird night.





	Starry, starry night

It might have been an early spring evening, but, as it so often happened, no-one seemed to have notified the weather. The small congregation of people on the rooftop was decidedly feeling too cold where they stood to be an attentive audience much longer – save for the two young men at the very edge of the loose circle. The shorter of them, a plump, blonde fellow had been standing perfectly still for most of the presentation, seemingly unaffected by the slightly wintry breeze that sometimes swept over the group. Maybe it was his thick, old, _really old_ coat that did the trick. Maybe he had hidden a portable space heater in its depths…

His perfectly rigid stance was all the more unnerving if one compared it to the nearly-constant shivering of his companion – and Lily couldn’t help doing that. The dark-haired, thin guy standing close by “Space Heater’s” side had been the first of the entire group to start shaking with cold, even before the wind had picked up a bit. Yet somehow, he still kept listening to Lily’s guide to the night sky, drinking her words with a rapturous expression she had previously only seen on the faces of small children at their first visit to the observatory.

She kind of felt sorry that she had to wrap up the presentation soon – there were, after all, _actual_ children in the audience, and their parents surely wouldn’t appreciate if they caught a cold just for the sake of absorbing a few more astronomical tidbits.

“… and if you go inside, on the wall to your left, you can see some pictures of the Orion Nebula Cluster. Feel free to take a look around, and bombard Harry with loads more questions over tea. Or me – I’ll just be a minute, packing up the telescope,” she said with a smile.

Right on time, too, as a strong gust of wind sent renewed shivers through her dispersing audience. Lily blow on her hands and rubbed them together, trying to coax some feeling back into her fingers – it was always helpful to actually have a working sense of touch, and not just try to glare into the darkness when fiddling with the telescope. Before she could have done that, though, a much smaller, and mercifully gloved hand waved at her from up close.

“Yes?”

“How many stars are in the Cluster, Miss?” asked a little girl, much to her exhausted father’s chagrin.

“Sorry, I told her to wait...” the man tried to apologise.

“No problem at all,” Lily said, waving away his concern with an impulsive gesture, and effectively losing any feeling she might have regained in that hand. Oh joy. “The Cluster, hmmm… I think it’s got well over two thousand stars, some of them quite far out from the centre.”

“Wow,” the child whispered in awe. Every single frozen finger was worth it for that one word.

“What do we say, Ava?” the father urged.

“Thank you, Miss.”

“Just Lily is fine, and you’re welcome. Now go ahead, have some tea – or hot cocoa – and see if my friend Harry knows anything interesting I haven’t told you yet.”

Father and daughter left her with a smile, and Lily started the procedure of warming her hands over again, before she would have started disassembling the telescope for the night. The wind had thankfully decided to take a tea-break, too, and it left the pleasantly dark world around the small rooftop terrace very quiet.

Quiet enough for Lily to overhear some whispers of the only two people remaining there with her.

“No, angel, I’m telling you, it’s two thousand eight hundred fifty-four!”

“I don’t think they’ve counted all of them yet, my dear...”

“Maybe not, but _I_ know, all right?”

“Oh! Oh… of course, my dear. I am sorry, it’s just… we’ve been here so long, I tend to forget you used to...”

The blonde trailed off then, because his companion held up his (still trembling and alarmingly pale) hand. Slowly, as one, they turned their heads from where they were huddled together, and they both looked straight at Lily.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” she mumbled guiltily. “I’m really sorry...”

“I’m sure you didn’t,” the blonde said with a curt little nod. It was the kind of nod that sent children to their rooms to think about what they’ve done, and, had this not been the observatory, Lily would surely have done exactly that.

“I, um… I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t usually do this. I’m sorry. Is there any way I can make it up to you?” she ended up asking.

“I don’t know… Crowley, dear, is there?”

“Well, Az-… Ezra,” his companion answered, “I sure wouldn’t mind another look at that last nebula...”

“Oh, sure!” Lily offered eagerly. This was such an easy request… in fact, too easy. Too small to compensate for what felt like an inordinate disturbance of a private conversation. “I can… You know, I could take you to the big telescope. We don’t usually use that for demonstration purposes nowadays, the inside of the dome would need a lot of renovation… but I’m sure you can take care and won’t cause any accidents while I find Orion.”

“Oh, that sounds like a splendid idea!” the blonde – Ezra – cried out, a genuine smile lighting up his whole face for once.

“That’s… that’s great! Um, feel free to go back inside – just along the corridor, and then up the stairs to the left, you can’t miss it. I’ll be with you in a moment, I just have to lock this one away,” Lily explained.

Ezra merely nodded, and he made his way to the door, shepherding his still starry-eyed friend next to him. Judging by how difficult it was for Crowley to tear his gaze away from the sky, he would have made a marvellous astronomer. Maybe not an observer, what with the unexplained dark glasses, but still...

“Thanksss,” he said with an unexpected little hiss as they passed her – although, he still was staring upwards all the way.

Lily found herself wondering about the duo while she packed up all the portable equipment. If she really focused, she thought she could recall them talking to each other in excited, though hushed, tones, all throughout the demonstration event. She didn’t remember if they had interacted with any of the other visitors at all – then again, talking to everyone was a requirement for Harry and her, not the visitors themselves.

She made her way inside and upstairs – where she found the two strange men standing relatively far away from the door that would lead to the dome, lingering by the staff’s common and commonly neglected potted plant. It was, currently, in surprisingly good shape. Lily could have sworn the leaves had looked far less healthy a few hours before.

For some reason, although it was difficult to read his expression behind the thickly coloured glasses, Crowley seemed to be staring at the plant smugly. Ezra, on the other hand, looked like he pitied the plant.

What a strange duo.

“Thanks for waiting,” Lily said to break the silence, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping again. She fished out the keys from her pocket and held the door open for the other two. Before she could have stopped him, Crowley made his way to the manual handle, and dutifully cranked the dome cover open. It usually got stuck halfway, needing a little push from below – but not tonight. Weird.

“Thank you,” Lily nodded, starting to accept that it would be very difficult to stop either of the two from getting their way. Besides, Crowley seemed to enjoy all of this so much… She wished he didn’t have some sort of mysterious eye condition that required him to wear the glasses even in the dim lighting of the observatory. Or that he would at least dare to take them off outside. He must have been missing the sight of so many starts because of them…

She shook her head mildly to help her focus and turned to the task at hand. The big, old telescope, but especially the pointing system had somewhat of a personality to themselves, and it would take at least ten very awkward minutes to get them to look where she wanted them to. Suddenly, Lily didn’t think inviting the two guests up to the dome had been such a good idea… Except, she got the pointing right on her second try. She straightened up, shook her head again, rubbed her eyes with very cold fists, and double-checked if it had only been her wishful thinking tricking her into seeing the nebula in the ocular. But no, it was there, crystal-clear and perfectly centred.

“It’s a lucky night,” she mumbled to herself – but of course the visitors caught her words in the utter silence.

“Why is that?” Ezra inquired, even as Crowley was impatiently shuffling closer to the telescope.

“Oh, very little cloud cover, good seeing, the usual, and...” Lily trailed off for a moment and sighed. For some reason, it was spectacularly difficult to lie to either of them. “All right, I’ll be honest, I’m surprised everything up here is working so well.”

“But why would you be? I’m sure all your equipment is in tip-top condition,” Ezra said. Crowley sniggered.

“I _wish_ ,” Lily replied, allowing herself a small chuckle.

“Hah, you did it again Azira-… Ezra,” Crowley said, humour turning into panicked course-correction in his voice.

“What was that?” Lily asked, because sometimes, she liked to be a tiny bit of a nuisance. Even a bit of a bastard. And this night had been weird anyway.

“Oh, nothing,” Ezra said with a sigh. “I have a bit of a unique name...”

“A mouthful,” Crowley supplied.

“Yes, well, we tend not to use it.”

“In public,” Lily added, quite sure of her truth. Ezra – whatever his real name was – looked vaguely uncomfortable.

“It savesss a lot of time, not having to explain it to people ssso often,” Crowley tried to explain. The strange hissing was back, Lily noted. It wasn’t so much scary as scared, itself… Previously, Crowley had been lost in the stars when he’d hissed, and now he was… lost in panicking? Well, that wouldn’t do.

“Sorry, none of my business, it’s just – an unusual night, is all,” Lily hurriedly said. She had to admit, it was kind of weak, as far as segues went… but she had the perfect distraction to offer. “Here, Orion’s all yours. If it drifts out of the picture, you can adjust-”

“I know,” Crowley gabbed, his excitement and impatience firmly in place as he practically tore the remote controller out of Lily’s hand. She stepped out of his way with a grin. She waited until she saw Crowley remove the glasses with a deft little move once he was leaned close to the ocular, and she only walked back down from the plinth once he’d adjusted the focus a bit. He _really_ seemed to know what he was doing – and enjoying himself immensely.

In the lack of a better idea, she went to talk to Ezra – who had in the meantime found some old textbooks and observers’ logs lying on an out-of-the-way table. When Lily stopped by his side, he was still glaring at the layer of dust on all of them. However, once he realised he had company, he straightened up and stepped back, turning to look at Crowley instead. His smile could have rivalled the brilliance of any star, and Lily found herself grinning at their very obvious and very deep bond. It was a thing of beauty, just like the stars.

“Would you also like to have a go, later?” Lily inquired, just to fill the stretching silence and not feel like she was intruding on something very private by merely standing still.

“Oh, it would be an absolute waste,” Ezra answered with a slight blush. “I’m afraid I still couldn’t tell Orion from Ophiuchus for my life, no matter his best efforts.”

“Well, he’s already managed to teach you about Ophiuchus,” Lily pointed out. “I could count on one hand how many visitors know that one each night. Heck, I could count it on one finger. Or zero, usually.”

“Thank you, dear girl. I should still let him have a few more minutes at the telescope than fumble with it myself.”

“I would offer to stay up here, but the constellation will set soon. Unless there’s something else either of you want to see?”

“Only _everything_ ,” Ezra said, with a new strangeness to his voice – like he knew something Lily definitely didn’t, and he was letting her see at least the existence of that knowledge. Which was quite an unreasonable thought to have, Lily told herself.

“The night might be a bit too short for that,” Lily agreed, “but one more target can’t hurt.”

“That’s very kind of you, my dear, but we couldn’t possibly keep you that long. Besides, Orion and its many wonders are very high up on the list of his favourites...”

“Yes, I’ve noticed. I wish _I_ was enthusiastic enough about any one cluster to guess at the number of stars.”

“Ah, yes, Crowley and his… guesses. It’s something of a… of a bet, in the lack of a better word.”

“Well, I hope he wins it, whatever the price is,” Lily said, surprising even herself with how true it was. “So, he likes counting stars, does he?”

“You could say that. In his way...”

“Well, then. I think I’ll aim for M3 soon,” Lily decided. “It’s no Orion, but it’s quite the sight, and the instruments seem to be on their best behaviour today.” She chuckled briefly, before she remembered her freezing hands and brought them up to blow some not-quite-hot-enough air on them.

“Oh, why not,” Ezra mumbled, earning another curious glance from their host. “I don’t do this often, and I definitely don’t expect you to get it right, let alone use it, but we should be properly introduced. Hello, my name is Aziraphale Fell – Ezra, for most people,” he said, extending a hand. Lily took it with what was probably an inordinately excited smile. For a brief moment, her brain came to a screeching halt upon the sheer pleasant warmth radiating from the strange man’s hand.

“H-hi,” she stammered eventually, “nice to meet you, Aziraphale.” The name wasn’t even so difficult, one just had to pay a little attention. He seemed to appreciate that she did. “I’m Lillian Taylor. Lily, for short. And yes, it was _very_ funny, studying series with that name.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand?” Aziraphale half-asked in confusion.

“Ah, sorry, bad joke. Or science joke. The two are often very similar. It’s just that, people used to tease me a bit with my surname when they first heard of the Taylor-series...”

“Ah, Taylor! Brook Taylor, yes, I remember, brilliant chap, if a little hard to understand...”

“I’m sorry, what?!” Lily not only _half_ -asked, and much less politely than Aziraphale had. He at least had the good sense to look embarrassed after making it sound like he had personally known a three-hundred-years dead mathematician.

“Ah, I… I run an antique bookshop, you see, and I come across quite a lot of old, forgotten correspondence...”

“Oh, sorry. That makes perfect sense. I just… I must be tired, is all.”

“Perhaps we should go...”

“Nonsense. I’ve promised you M3, I’m gonna give you M3,” Lily declared, wondering if this counted as trapping guests in the dome.

“Are you quite sure?”

“Positive. For now, we’ve still got at least ten minutes reasonable visibility for the cluster, I reckon...”

“Perfect! I’ve been meaning to talk to you about these books...”

And that innocent statement was the start of how Lily ended up learning more about the handling and care of old books and manuscripts in ten-fifteen minutes than what she had picked up throughout her life up to that point. Aziraphale – who definitely had the same enthusiasm for books of any age that Crowley harboured for all things astronomy – even tried to convince her to let him take an appraise one of the more neglected copies. Lily insisted that it belonged to whoever legally ran the observatory, but accepted a business card for “A. Z. Fell & Co.” to appease the collector in Aziraphale.

“I’ll just aim this thing myself, right?” Crowley proclaimed to the mostly empty dome somewhat louder that necessary, and it brought the other two back from their excursion into antiquarian territory. He was quietly snickering, though, so no harm was done. Besides, Lily had the completely unreasonable yet persistent feeling that he would be able to get the pointing _just right_ on his first go – and she really wanted to see him try.

“I can give you a map or lend a hand,” she offered, mostly out of a sense of obligation. She didn’t think he would need either one of those.

Crowley chose the unexpected method of continually staring into the ocular while adjusting the position of the telescope by pressing the buttons on the remote essentially blindly. Miraculously, he managed neither to move too far away, nor to abruptly end up with a faceful of telescope in the process. Lily would have laughed, except, he was headed in exactly the right direction.

The only casualties of this unusual dance were Crowley’s dark glasses. They slid out of a pocket, clattered to the floor and bounced down from the plinth. Lily picked them up swiftly, and she was relieved that she didn’t discover any obvious signs of cracks. She stepped up onto the plinth to offer them to their flustered owner.

“Here you g-… oh.”

Huge, golden eyes stared back at her with thin, vertically slit pupils sitting in them.

After the initial shock, Lily quickly forced herself to blink and _just stop staring, damn it_.

“I think you’ve dropped these,” she said, much more quietly, but she held out the glasses regardless. Crowley snatched them out of her loose hold with the speed of a striking cobra, and Lily thought she should _really stop with the animal comparisons, it’s very rude_. Crowley, in the meantime, didn’t waste a second before he planted the glasses firmly on his face again.

“Thanksss,” he said, equally quietly.

And it would have been much easier to stop thinking up snake-parallels if he hadn’t been hissing the end of that word.

“Should we…?” Aziraphale let the question hang in the air.

“Yesss, angel,” Crowley answered, heaving a sigh. He let go of the controller unit and hurried to his partner, who was already turning towards the door.

“Wait!” Lily nearly cried out once she caught up with the events. “Wait, please, you don’t have to go. It’s just the three of us in here. And I won’t say a word...”

“I think we all have had enough excitement for one night,” Aziraphale noted with finality.

“You could come back some other night?” Lily offered, although it felt strangely like pleading. “After the others have left, if you want. I’ve told you my schedule already, and I’d be more than happy to bring you up here again?”

“Half the fun is watching all the others – and I’m afraid we can’t do that now.”

“But no-one’s seen a thing, and I- I’ve forgotten it already, okay?”

“We shouldn’t have come at all,” Crowley muttered. “It’sss been too many timesss, and too clossse...”

“We’ll think about it, all right, dear?” Aziraphale said quickly. It wasn’t quite clear which one of them he was addressing, and Lily was all out of ideas. Except…

“Telescopes are much cheaper than certain antiques, I’m sure, and there’s some brochures downstairs with shops and buying advice,” she gabbed, hoping to get the words out before the determined pair would leave the dome.

She liked to think she heard a faint “Thank you”, before they walked out the door.

 

 


End file.
